Trade marks and M&A: the risk of looking only at what is on record
A trade mark review should not be limited to confirming that registrations exist and have been renewed. The real aim is to understand the role the trade mark plays in the business. Before consulting databases or requesting certificates, it is worth understanding the target’s business strategy: the importance of the trade mark in attracting customers
A new round of applications for branded gTLDs is now open. How and when should we decide whether we’re interested in our own .brand?
A new round of applications for generic top-level domains (gTLDs) by ICANN is scheduled for April 2026, the first such round since 2012. Top-level domains (TLDs) are the final part of a domain name. This means that any company that meets the requirements will be able to apply for its own top-level domain extension, as companies such as Canon, Seat and Barclays have already done with the gTLDs .canon, .seat and .barclays.
Someone else has registered my trade mark! What should I do?
Key points Table of contents After months or even years of driving a business project forward, you have realised that a third party has registered your trade mark. Or, worse still, the third party has offered to sell you the registration of (your) trade mark, under the implicit threat that, should you fail to […]